Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Crashout Blu-ray Movie Review

They're no angels.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 24, 2013

1955 saw two films released within just a couple of months of each other which bore surface similarities, but which couldn’t have been more different. We’re No Angels was a big hit over the summer and early fall of 1955, a kind of madcap romp wherein three convicts (including one played by Humphrey Bogart) escape from Devil’s Island and then prove that they’re all relatively decent guys by helping out a down on their luck family. Just a few months prior to the breezy Bogart outing's opening, another film dealing with a bunch of prisoners escaping from the veritable joint was released, but it took a decidedly more dramatic, even overtly violent, approach to the basic setup. Crashout is notable for giving character actor William Bendix, a star who for many at the time was probably most associated with the television comedy Life of Riley and who in fact might have been perfectly at home in the humorous environs of We’re No Angels, one of his most bristling and unforgettable dramatic lead roles. Bendix plays psychopathic murderer and bank robber Van Duff (eagle eyed viewers will note his wanted poster identifies him as Vance Duff), a desperate soul who takes part in a massive prison break, but who ends up being one of only six to actually make it out alive (albeit badly wounded). Duff is surrounded by what might be termed the dirty half dozen or so of equally desperate men, but he makes a Faustian bargain with them that he’ll split the still stashed loot from his bank heist if they can get a doctor to come treat his wounds. That sets Crashout on a rather reckless journey where various characters have to deal not just with an encroaching manhunt, but with their increasingly tense interrelationships that begin fraying at the seams.

Crashout doesn’t waste any time on back stories or even setting up the prison break. The film’s credits sequence plays over the violent uprising of a horde of prisoners. We see guards pulling out guns and mowing down huge swaths of the convicts, both within and without the formidable walls of the facility. As each of the main actors is introduced in the credits, we’re shown scenes of them fleeing the premises, running through scrub that surrounds the prison. Two guards on a plateau spy two prisoners running in a valley below, and one of the guards shoots them both. The first victim is dead, but the second, Van (William Bendix), while badly wounded, actually only plays dead when one of the guards comes down to inspect his “handiwork” (the police in this film manage to do a number of really dunderheaded things). The film then segues to an underground cave where a quintet of escapees has holed up. They initially panic when they hear someone approaching, but it turns out to be the bloody and barely conscious Van, who it turns out is the one who told most of the guys in the cave where this hiding place was (how he knew is never fully explained). The one unexpected escapee is Joe Quinn (Arthur Kennedy), a guy who evidently wasn’t in Van’s “inner circle” and whose appearance in the cave doesn’t exactly meet with Van’s approval. But Van is in no position to put up much of a fuss, and in fact he soon collapses from his wounds, but not before he warns his fellow escapees not to dare to venture out before three days have elapsed, in order to make sure the dragnet has moved beyond the local environs.

The escapees are a rather motley crew of individuals, played by a number of great character actors, some of whom will bring back fond memories for Baby Boomers who grew up glued to the television. Chief among these is Swanee, evidently Van’s right hand man and a crook who has a number of aliases which are revealed as the film moves along, played by Perry Mason’s long suffering (and losing) District Attorney Hamilton Burger, William Talman. There’s also a young kid named Billy who ended up in prison due as much to stupidity as any nefarious criminal intent, played by future Daktari star Marshall Thompson. Hard bitten Monk is played by Gene Evans, a great character actor you’ll recognize even if his name doesn’t ring a bell. Erstwhile Group Theater member Luther Adler turns in a ham-tastic performance as Pete Mendoza, a strangely accented ethnic type who has a thing for the ladies.

When Monk, who seems to be motivated mostly by food, wants to get out of the cave before the three days is up, a couple of the other guys agree, since the cops are nowhere in sight. But Van, who seems to be near death, begs them not to abandon him, and reveals he has $80,000 stashed from the bank heist that put him away, a pile of money he’ll split with the guys if they can get him medical aid. In one of the film’s unexplained and frankly slightly ludicrous developments, a couple of the guys do lure a country doctor (played by the wonderful Percy Helton) out to a gas station where they abduct him and force him to operate on Van. While Van isn’t exactly in robust health, he’s at least able to stand again, and he agrees to lead the guys on a quest for the loot. In the first of several fairly disturbing developments in the film, Van also has Swanee make sure the doctor doesn’t go running to the authorities.

The rest of Crashout deals with the guys trying to get the hell out of Dodge, or whatever unnamed Rocky Mountain burg they trundle through. There are a number of really nicely done set pieces here, including a great stop off at a “barn dance” at a roadside diner, a sequence which includes yet more stupidity by the local constabulary. One of the guys meets his fate at this location, and the remaining five manage to get on a train, where in one of two extremely unlikely romantic stories shoehorned into the proceedings, young Billy falls for a giril (a winsome Gloria Talbott) who sits next to him. It’s love at first sight, but Van isn’t about to have one of the “team” take off unsupervised. Exit another character.

The remaining four characters next hole up at the farmhouse of pretty young mother Alice Mosher (Beverly Michaels), where the second romantic angle starts to play out. Yet another character bites the dust at the end of this sequence, which leaves a triumvirate of characters to trudge into the mountains to try to locate Van’s booty. Let’s just say things don’t exactly go swimmingly, with only one character making it out alive. The ending of the film is strangely ambiguous, not really letting us know if this character is going to make it to safety or turn himself into the approaching police force (in the second half of this film, the police, who are on the hunt for vicious escaped convicts, repeatedly announce their presence with blaring sirens, which only serves to alert the escapees, who are able to hide at a moment’s notice).

The name Lewis R. Foster may not be familiar to many readers, but this journeyman writer, composer and director had a long and actually quite distinguished career, including an Oscar win for writing the original story for the Jimmy Stewart classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. His directing career wasn’t quite as illustrious, but Crashout proves that while he may not have been “showy”, he was able to stage things very effectively and, most importantly, draw really visceral performances out of some unlikely suspects. Bendix and Talman are especially riveting in this film, both in rather unusual roles. The film may play in a way like a prison break version of Agatha Christie’s famous And Then There Were None , but it’s a rather remarkably compelling little film that is frequently quite tense and exciting.

Crashout Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Crashout is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. It might seem a little odd that a relatively small scale, "non glamorous" outing like Crashout would have been granted a "widescreen" release in what was then still the early days of the format, but the added frame space allows director Foster to establish wide panoramas, especially during several important establishing shots as the convicts may their way through various locales. The elements here are in decent enough shape, with only the typical flecks and specks showing up from time to time. There are, however, some occasional inconsistencies. Compare for example the screenshots of Marshall Thompson (position 2) and Kennedy and Evans (position 10) poking their heads over the berm. In both cases, you'll note increased softness and grain, if not downright digital noise, as well as less pleasing contrast. Additionally one really rather odd thing is that on three or four occasions, there are what appear to be optical enlargements of individual moments (in lieu of actual close-ups). These look completely strange, with noticeably degraded image and some swarming digital noise. Why this approach was taken is anyone's guess, but it's a slightly distracting aspect to what is otherwise a generally solid if unspectacular high definition presentation (it seems especially odd in at least one instance, where Kennedy and Michaels are already in close-up, and then there's just a brief enlargement of Kennedy for a second or two—see screenshot 17 for an example). (There's a chance that the aforementioned berm moments are also optical enlargements, but it seems strange considering how "wide" those shots are.) This is at times a rather surprisingly grainy outing, which if nothing else confirms Olive's tradition of not digitally scrubbing their releases. Aside from the anomalies listed above, contrast is otherwise very strong throughout this enterprise, helping making the nighttime scenes nicely distinct, with better than average shadow detail. There is some noticeable motion judder in a couple of pans, especially early in the film.

Crashout Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Crashout features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track that has more than usual amount of background hiss, especially in the opening few minutes, but which is otherwise not problematic in any major way. Dialogue and Leith Stevens' bombastic score both sound fine, if obviously quite shallow. Dynamic range is rather wide throughout this film.

Crashout Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are presented on this Blu-ray disc.

Crashout Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Crashout is a really interesting character study, and it affords a half dozen great actors a chance to strut their stuff, in at least a couple of cases in rather unusual roles. The film is alternately predictable and frankly a bit ludicrous (especially with regard to the romantic subplots), but it's rarely dull. This Blu-ray has some occasionally problematic video, but it still comes Recommended.